‘Treated like a pet’: Malaysian man accused of confining teen daughter to tiny market stall for nearly a year

A Malaysian father is under investigation for making his teenage daughter sleep on the floor of a tiny market stall in Singapore.

The 63-year-old man, surnamed Tan, who is a permanent resident of the city state, had been selling vegetables at a market in Circuit Road – one of the Lion City’s oldest housing estates – for a decade.

He made his 15-year-old daughter live in one of the three stalls he rented at the wet market for 11 months, local news outlet Lianhe Zaobao reported.

A neighbouring stall owner, who had just moved his business there, said he smelled excrement coming from Tan’s stall, and reported it to the National Environment Agency.

On April 3, staff from the agency discovered the girl had been living in the six-square-metre space.